Mentorship Programme – The Art and Science of Growing People

At Eagle Wings Mentorship Academy, we have a Mentorship Programme aimed at helping disadvantaged youth to realize their full potential and become who they were meant to be (Eagles) so that they can change the world. We believe that growing people will make us rich for the next 100 years.

It is Albert Einstein who observed that “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Mindset change is one such new level of thinking. And to change the mindsets of the youth requires mentorship which builds someone from the inside out, transforming him/her. Thus mentorship is a billion-person solution as we all want it, "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mentorship will not be replaced by technology but it has the potential to be enhanced by it to reach out to underserved or underprivileged youth in the rural areas and help develop their character.

Our mentorship programme is a lifelong journey where we build a lasting relationship with our mentees and grow with them. We provide them with credible information on scholarships and guide them with their application so as to make it competitive. Some of these scholarships include the Mastercard Foundation which enables vulnerable students to access quality education from leading universities.  Currently we have 20+ mentees in our mentorship programme and one of them has already secured a scholarship to study in one of the top 10 universities globally.

We bridge the gap left by formal education and provide our mentees with information on how they can make both a life and a fortune. We encourage them to take advantage of available learning opportunities and embrace self-education and lifelong-learning by taking advantage of the free online courses such as edX or the tuition free online degree from the University of the People. Our focus is not only academic talent but also artistic and entrepreneurial talent. We identify those highly talented youth and help them reach their full potential and become indispensable men and women in the society.

Everyone is capable of attaining self-actualization yet only less than 2% of the human population are self-actualized. What about the 98% of us? Unless something is done to alter this, we will all end up in the graveyard denying the world our indispensable gift. Thus untapped human potential is a billion-person problem. The problem is even worse for disadvantaged youth who lack resources, opportunities and an enabling environment to unlock their fullest potential. These youth lack information on available opportunities for scholarships and other learning opportunities. We also have credible information that those who apply for scholarships submit substandard applications.

Our mentees understand why we do what we do and contribute to our higher purpose to make the world a better place by engaging in the world’s fight. We discuss about what it takes to change the world and challenge them that if one person can change the world, how many persons can change a country? We also inspire them to become problem solvers and see their personal problems and challenges as a wonderful stroke of luck. By embracing a new level of thinking based on mindset change, our own personal triumphs will become the achievements of our common humanity.

Our Mentorship Programme is aimed at challenging the mindset of our youth under 25 years who make up 70% of Africa’s population. We encourage them to become problem-solvers and job-creators instead of job-seekers. We provide them with opportunities for their lifelong and online learning and guide them to apply for scholarships and become entrepreneurs. Our mentorship will be both in person and online through workshops and social media. This will in turn benefit our individual mentees, their families, wards, communities, counties, Kenya, Africa and the whole world. This is because education produces ripple effects whose impact can be felt globally.

A record of those who register and participate in our mentorship programmes (workshops) - 15000 young people attend our mentorship programme (workshops)

The number of primary and secondary school students or school leavers mentored by our mentees as part of their commitment to give back to their communities - At least 100 primary and secondary school students or school leavers mentored by each of our 15000 mentees

Get testimonials on how the mentorship has impacted them and track the number of new businesses established and successful scholarship applications. - Mindset change, new businesses established and most deserving students get scholarships

We are now in the Information Age and we utilize technological tools such as Smartphones, Mobile Apps, WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Email, Mpesa etc to obtain credible information as well as communicate to our Mentees. This has made it possible to do the mentorship from home and even mentor those outside the country. We are also using these tools to build our brand and community of followers that we have continually engaged. Apparently most of our mentees are our social media connections. Our Founder’s Facebook posts have attracted 74,000+ likes. His LinkedIn connections include Influencers like Daniel Goleman among others.

Being a mentor requires total commitment, dedication and sacrifice as you give people your most important asset/part of your life that you will never recover - time. We asked our online community which is superior, mentorship or philanthropy? And over 95% said mentorship. We also ask for feedback from our mentees who give us their testimonials about our mentorship programme and all of them have said we exceeded their expectations. We are also making our mentees and online community part of our movement. Currently we have 31.99 million Kenyans on the internet with 6.7million of them active on social media.

We hope to build a website with the same format, model or platform as edX where we will provide our mentorship programmes. We will provide login details to those who register to join the mentorship programme. The training manual will be forwarded through email to our mentees. Our app will be ready before we scale up. We will keep improving our content with time to ensure we provide our mentees with the best information ever. We will also have hardcopy/printed training manual for those who want a hardcopy or have limited access to internet at a cost of US$ 10.

We started our Mentorship Programme with nothing. All our 20+ mentees have made upfront payments of US$ 50 – 80 (total cost of the programme). We are now working on our training manual which will cost US$ 10 with summary and detailed information about all our 50+ modules. We will also organize workshops for our 15000 mentees in all the 47 counties in Kenya at a cost of US$ 10 to take them through our mentorship programme. Those who cannot afford will be trained for free and extra funding obtained through crowdsourcing, companies with CSR and partnership with national and county Governments. But our key stakeholders will be students, educators, parents, entrepreneurs and leaders at all levels. As philanthropreneurs all our decisions are driven by a higher purpose to change the world. We are still working on our philanthropreneur business model as we plan to impact billions across the world.

We are limited by lack of financial resources, office and training space, computers, internet, laptops and a professional website. We also have limited access to partners and Thought Leaders in business, government, philanthropy, academia and nonprofit who can provide us with mentorship, technical know-how and expertise. Our solution has developed deep roots and given access to resources and credible people and organizations to work with, we have the potential to move away from pilot-project-oology to scale-up-oology and shoot up like the Chinese Bamboo. By adopting exponential thinking mindset, we hope to use technology to attract the right resources we need. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ir-titus-kimutai-suter-3153b521/

https://www.facebook.com/Iatumik

https://www.itc.nl/Pub/alumni-testimonials/Titus-Kimutai-Suter.html

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead. This is true of Solve. Becoming a Solver will take our brand and credibility to the next level. This will inspire others that indeed hardwork and grit pays and a great vision attracts the right resources. Such is the joy of being found doing our duty. Solve will help build our capacity for the vision as we stand on the shoulders of giants. We will also learn the most effective technologies to deliver our programmes.

We are currently working with Mentors and Advisors who provide us with honest opinions. They are Arif Neky (UN Kenya Advisor on Strategic Partnerships), Dr. Joshua Cheboiwo (Deputy Director at KEFRI), Dr. Nzula Kitaka (Senior Lecturer and Graduate School Director – Egerton University) and Oltesh Thobias (African Development Bank-AfDB).

Our work is a new frontier in the marketplace and collaboration will help us to grow exponentially.